MAO TSE-TUNG
(March 1927)
REPORT ON AN INVESTIGATION OF THE PEASANT MOVEMENT IN HUNAN
CONTENTS:
The Importance Of The Peasant Problem
Get Organized!
Down With The Local Tyrants And Evil Gentry! All Power To The
Peasant Associations!
"It's Terrible!" Or "It's Fine!"
The Question Of "Going Too Far"
The "Movement Of The Riffraff"
Vanguards Of The Revolution
Fourteen Great Achievements
Organizing the peasants into peasant associations
Hitting the landlords politically
Hitting the landlords economically
Overthrowing the feudal rule of the local tyrants and evil
gentry -- smashing the tu and tuan
Overthrowing the armed forces of the landlords and establishing
those of the peasants
Overthrowing the political power of the county magistrate and
his bailiffs
Overthrowing the clan authority of the ancestral temples and
clan elders, the religious authority of town and village gods,
and the masculine authority of husbands
Spreading political propaganda
Peasant bans and prohibitions
Eliminating banditry
Abolishing exorbitant levies
The movement for education
The co-operative movement
Building roads and repairing embankments
NOTES
THE IMPORTANCE OF THE PEASANT PROBLEM
During my recent visit to Hunan [1] I made a first-hand investigation of
conditions in the five counties of Hsiangtan, Hsianghsiang, Hengshan, Liling
and Changsha. In the thirty-two days from January 4 to February 5, I called
together fact-finding conferences in villages and county towns, which were
attended by experienced peasants and by comrades working in the peasant
movement, and I listened attentively to their reports and collected a great
deal of material. Many of the hows and whys of the peasant movement were the
exact opposite of what the gentry in Hankow and Changsha are saying. I saw
and heard of many strange things of which I had hitherto been unaware. I
believe the same is true of many other places, too. All talk directed
against the peasant movement must be speedily set right. All the wrong
measures taken by the revolutionary authorities concerning the peasant
movement must be speedily changed. Only thus can the future of the
revolution be benefited. For the present upsurge of the peasant movement is
a colossal event. In a very short time, in China's central, southern and
northern provinces, several hundred million peasants will rise like a mighty
storm, like a hurricane, a force so swift and violent that no power, however
great, will be able to hold it back. They will smash all the trammels that
bind them and rush forward along the road to liberation. They will sweep all
the imperialists, warlords, corrupt officials, local tyrants and evil gentry
into their graves. Every revolutionary party and every revolutionary comrade
will be put to the test, to be accepted or rejected as they decide. There
are three alternatives. To march at their head and lead them? To trail
behind them, gesticulating and criticizing? Or to stand in their way and
oppose them? Every Chinese is free to choose, but events will force you to
make the choice quickly.
GET ORGANIZED!
The development of the peasant movement in Hunan may be divided roughly into
two periods with respect to the counties in the province's central and
southern parts where the movement has already made much headway. The first,
from January to September of last year, was one of organization. In this
period, January to June was a time of underground activity, and July to
September, when the revolutionary army was driving out Chao Heng-ti, [2] one
of open activity. During this period, the membership of the peasant
associations did not exceed 300,000-400,000 the masses directly under their
leadership numbered little more than a million, there was as yet hardly any
struggle in the rural areas, and consequently there was very little
criticism of the associations in other circles. Since its members served as
guides, scouts and carriers of the Northern Expeditionary Army, even some of
the officers had a good word to say for the peasant associations. The second
period, from last October to January of this year, was one of revolutionary
action. The membership of the associations jumped to two million and the
masses directly under their leadership increased to ten million. Since the
peasants generally enter only one name for the whole family on joining a
peasant association, a membership of two million means a mass following of
about ten million. Almost half the peasants in Hunan are now organized. In
counties like Hsiangtan, Hsianghsiang, Liuyang, Changsha, Liling,
Ninghsiang, Pingkiang, Hsiangyin, Hengshan, Hengyang, Leiyang, Chenhsien and
Anhua, nearly all the peasants have combined in the peasant associations or
have come under their leadership. It was on the strength of their extensive
organization that the peasants went into action and within four months
brought about a great revolution in the countryside, a revolution without
parallel in history.
DOWN WITH THE LOCAL TYRANTS AND EVIL GENTRY!
ALL POWER TO THE PEASANT ASSOCIATIONS!
The main targets of attack by the peasants are the local tyrants, the evil
gentry and the lawless landlords, but in passing they also hit out against
patriarchal ideas and institutions, against the corrupt officials in the
cities and against bad practices and customs in the rural areas. In force
and momentum the attack is tempestuous; those who bow before it survive and
those who resist perish. As a result, the privileges which the feudal
landlords enjoyed for thousands of years are being shattered to pieces.
Every bit of the dignity and prestige built up by the landlords is being
swept into the dust. With the collapse of the power of the landlords, the
peasant associations have now become the sole organs of authority and the
popular slogan "All power to the peasant associations" has become a reality.
Even bides such as a quarrel between husband and wife are brought to the
peasant association. Nothing can be settled unless someone from the peasant
association is present. The association actually dictates all rural affairs,
and, quite literally, "whatever it says, goes". Those who are outside the
associations can only speak well of them and cannot say anything against
them. The local tyrants, evil gentry and lawless landlords have been
deprived of all right to speak, and none of them dares even mutter dissent.
In the face of the peasant associations' power and pressure, the top local
tyrants and evil gentry have fled to Shanghai, those of the second rank to
Hankow, those of the third to Changsha and those of the fourth to the county
towns, while the fifth rank and the still lesser fry surrender to the
peasant associations in the villages.
"Here's ten yuan. Please let me join the peasant association," one of the
smaller of the evil gentry will say.
"Ugh! Who wants your filthy money?" the peasants reply.
Many middle and small landlords and rich peasants and even some middle
peasants, who were all formerly opposed to the peasant associations, are now
vainly seeking admission. Visiting various places, I often came across such
people who pleaded with me, "Mr. Committeeman from the provincial capital,
please be my sponsor!"
In the Ching Dynasty, the household census compiled by the local
authorities consisted of a regular register and "the other" register, the
former for honest people and the latter for burglars, bandits and similar
undesirables. In some places the peasants now use this method to scare those
who formerly opposed the associations. They say, "Put their names down in
the other register!"
Afraid of being entered in the other register, such people try various
devices to gain admission into the peasant associations, on which their
minds are so set that they do not feel safe until their names are entered.
But more often than not they are turned down flat, and so they are always on
tenterhooks; with the doors of the association barred to them, they are like
tramps without a home or, in rural parlance, "mere trash". In short, what
was looked down upon four months ago as a "gang of peasants" has now become
a most honourable institution. Those who formerly prostrated themselves
before the power of the gentry now bow before the power of the peasants. No
matter what their identity, all admit that the world since last October is a
different one.
"IT'S TERRIBLE!" OR "IT'S FINE!"
The peasants' revolt disturbed the gentry's sweet dreams. When the news from
the countryside reached the cities, it caused immediate uproar among the
gentry. Soon after my arrival in Changsha, I met all sorts of people and
picked up a good deal of gossip. From the middle social strata upwards to
the Kuomintang right-wingers, there was not a single person who did not sum
up the whole business in the phrase, "It's terrible!" Under the impact of
the views of the "It's terrible!" school then flooding the city, even quite
revolutionary-minded people became down-hearted as they pictured the events
in the countryside in their mind's eye; and they were unable to deny the
word "terrible". ...
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